[rotorwrench]

We had a fellow comment on one of these threads about fabrication of his dies. If I remember correctly they are more on the line of a hand forming die set up and not a press die set. With modern high pressure water jet tables and the like, a set of forming dies can be cut out to fit the basic shape but have cut outs and and added forming bucks for the hand forming process. This is how a lot of stuff was formed before deep draw press equipment became more widely produced. The art of repousse' and chasing have been around a long time. The statue of Liberty was made this way. Copper is a bit easier to form though. You can do a lot with a hammer and a set of old chisels with the chasing shapes needed. Plywood can work too but it would only last through one or two panels before it was misshapen a bit too much.

All a person needs is a floor pattern to make a die set but it would have to be in CAD/CAM for the machines to cut them out. It takes a while to hammer stuff out and generally some welding has to be done as well but a floor isn't as hard to beat out as you might think. I'm surprised someone like Mac Hils hasn't taken up stuff like this since he already has a good bit of forming equipment.